NFL Breakout Candidates 2024: Colts TE Jelani Woods

Jelani Woods was a highly successful quarterback in high school but used a redshirt year at Oklahoma State in 2018 to transition to tight end. After averaging just over 10 catches for 120 yards and a touchdown in his three seasons in Stillwater, he transferred to Virginia, where in one year he caught 44 passes for 598 yards and eight TDs.

Yet, it wasn’t until his combine the following spring, that people really started to consider him a big-time NFL prospect. He ran a 4.61 at 6-foot-7, 260 pounds, and followed that up with elite numbers in both the jumps and three-cone drill at his pro day, ultimately earning a perfect Relative Athletic Score (10.0).

Understanding the Colts’ inclination for drafting freakish athletes, I wasn’t surprised by the least that they selected Jelani Woods early in the third round of 2022. With veterans in Mo Alie-Cox and Kylen Granson on the roster, however, Woods didn’t log at least 40% of offensive snaps or see more than three targets until Week 12, only totaling seven catches (on 13 targets) for 79 yards, although he did reach the end-zone three times that campaign.

Over the final six weeks, he played just over 30 snaps, hauling in 18 of 27 looks his way for 233 yards. Unfortunately, reoccurring hamstring injuries limited him during OTAs, training camp and ultimately cost him the entire 2023 season.

Now, fully healed and having a full offseason to work with quarterback Anthony Richardson (who he probably spent playing of time together in the training room with, recovering from shoulder surgery himself), those two are ready to take off together.

Why Colts TE Jelani Woods could break out in the 2024 NFL season

Despite turning 26 in October, the Colts felt comfortable betting on the athletic profile and the college production, trying to take advantage of his skills, rather than making him a glorified H-back. You see that explosiveness Jelani Woods brings with how quickly he eats up that cushion to safeties in two-high looks, even out of three- or parallel two-point stances.

The Colts isolated Woods on the backside of the formation as the de-facto X receiver in reduced splits quite regularly during his rookie campaign. There, his ability to stick that foot in the ground and cut toward the middle of the field was shockingly dynamic for a guy at 255+ pounds.

Also read: NFL Breakout Candidates 2024: Bengals RB Chase Brown, Raiders RB Zamir White

Plus, then he’d a little shoulder shake to soften that break for himself, throwing off the awaiting defender. That’s where he separated himself from Mo Alie-Cox as a similarly gigantic pass-catcher since the veteran does need excessive steps at the break-point too often and struggles to get away from his man.

With his large frame and ability to push defenders up the field, Jelani Woods can open up room for his fellow receivers coming in underneath him, such as on levels-based concepts.

In general, safeties being asked to play off-man coverage against Woods have a tough time bumping him off the route. He has room to build up momentum and get the opponent further onto his heels and up the field than he needs to be as the tight end nudges him off at the top.

You see the wheels to run past a linebacker out of a bunch or a safety buzzing down into the flats and then having to carry him on wheel routes. And he’ll also use that horizontally, giving a little size outside and then blazing away from his defender on drags.

When defenders were able to challenge him earlier in the route, I thought they had much better success. That’s definitely an area the third-year man will need to work on, actually using technique in the way he uses his hands to regain control of the rep. That doesn’t mean he can’t battle through contact and still “win,” but rather that he could become more effective by refining that area of his game.

Nevertheless, when it comes to using physicality once the ball is in the air, Woods’ aptitude to slightly push off and gain a rebounding position or initiate contact and makes him a problem. Especially for defenders who aren’t able to put themselves between the quarterback and tight ends.

Altogether, Jelani Woods hauled in four of seven contested targets as a rookie. Yet, while he officially only dropped two of 27 catchable passes, he does slightly misjudge balls coming in at challenging angles over his head, where he didn’t get his fingers on it but might have been able to lay out for the ball. That’s a weird match with corner routes being some of his best ways to win.

Having said that, he isn’t somebody you want to catch the ball with a head of steam. He covers a ton of ground with those long strides and becomes a locomotive you simply have to try to get in the way of, even if he’s not going to add much creativity or variety on the fly to get around opponents.

Of the 224 snaps Woods logged when they threw the ball in his debut campaign, 92 came in-line, 86 in the slot and 46 out wide. In almost all of the remaining 110 snaps he played on rushing downs, he was attached to the hip of the tackle.

I definitely wouldn’t classify Woods as a people-mover in the run game, certainly not in a way that would make sense for his size. But he does gain good positioning early on, operates from a wide base and keeps moving his feet to take care of his assignments.

Jelani Woods' PFF run-blocking grade of 50.3 seems underwhelming, but at least there was very little variance, to where he only once finished below 50. You see Jelani effectively execute down-blocks on defensive ends to keep the C-gap clean, handle backside seals, trap three techniques, and insert up the A-gap from wing alignments.

As I already mentioned with second-year QB Anthony Richardson, I believe there’s a lot to get excited about with the infrastructure they’ve created around him. Woods isn’t anywhere close to cemented as an integral piece of their passing game specifically or even guaranteed to be their starting tight end.

Alie-Cox and Granson are still on the roster and a guy they drafted in the sixth round along with Woods in 2022, Andrew Ogletree, logged 40% of offensive snaps in the games he was active for, as they were dealing with those injuries.

With that being said, I believe in terms of explosiveness, the way he uses his big frame and the tank he becomes with the ball in his hands, along with competency as a blocker, Shane Steichen will make it a priority to get Jelani Woods involved.

The head coach said a good ago that about Woods, that he’s “a big body TE that can run the vertical routes, shallows, the deep cross” and that he’s “a matchup for a defense that they gotta be prepared for."

I’m geeked up about the potential of a jumbo-sized 11 personnel, where if they want to use Michael Pittman Jr. more as a big slot this year, rookie Adonai Mitchell (Texas) might be the smallest among the guys throwing and catching the ball, at 6’2”, 205 pounds,